This invention relates in general to electrical connectors and deals more particularly with an improved modular telecommunication jack adapter for interfacing with a standard modular telephone jack, such as an RJ-11 or RJ-45 jack, to alter the electrical output appearance of the telephone jack.
The increasing demand for improved telecommunication equipment to handle high frequency signal transmission has created the need for improved high density interconnect devices which provide clean circuit paths to reduce attenuation loss, radiated noise and cross-talk. Heretofore, jack adapters have been provided for altering the output appearance of an existing telephone jack and/or splitting or dividing the jack output. The stationary contacts at the plugging end of such an adapter may be connected to the moveable contacts within the jack end of the adapter through a PC board or by hard wiring which may necessitate several terminations in each circuit path through the adapter. The use of a PC board to alter or split circuit paths has generally resulted in an adapter having a relatively large major transverse cross-section, thereby rendering the adapter unsuitable for use with a dense array of telephone jacks, as in a modular patch panel.
Accordingly, it is the general aim of the present invention to provide an improved modular telecommunication jack adapter suitable for use in a modular patch panel or the like and wherein the number of terminations between the input and output contacts of the adapter is minimized to provide clean circuit paths.